Monday June 23, 2014

Monday June 23. 2014

Dear family,

Last week was crazy! There was so much going on. My new companion's is Sister Peay (pronounced "pay"), from Mapleton Utah, and she is wonderful! I'm still waiting for that one really hard and difficult companion, but I'm going to have to keep waiting. She is full of love and a desire to serve. I'm really excited for this transfer! AND Sister George, the sister I trained, moved into our apartment too!!! I love her so much and I have missed her, so I am super excited about that.

Nian JM (Andrea) is doing so well!! Last week she agreed to obey the Word of Wisdom and set a goal to be completely following it by the 21st. We met with her on Saturday, the 21st. She has finals, she's still recovering from her car crash a couple of weeks ago, and she didn't drink any coffee the entire week! Not only that, but she gave all her coffee away. She told us her roommates were so surprised, because they wanted her coffee before and she wouldn't give it to them, but now she voluntarily gives them all of it! She is absolutely amazing!  Because she's following the Word of Wisdom, she’s been receiving blessings. Her body has been healing a lot faster than she expected. And she's saving money from not buying coffee! These are subtle but significant blessings. She is amazing. And so is God.

Zhao got baptized on Saturday!  It was crazy planning his baptism while working around transfers, but it turned out alright. And I've never seen someone laugh so much walking out of the water--it was so cute.

Zhao, his mother, Sisters Peay, Edwards and the member baptizing Zhao.

Today for exercise we woke up early and biked to the train station to drop off a bike there. So on our return trip we switched off one companion running, one biking. We pulled up to a guy in a blue truck, with watermelons in the back, eating Binlang (Betel Nut--super disgusting stuff) and looking like every other blue truck guy, which is not super great. But we said hello and chatted for a second. As we invited him to church, he started quoting the beatitudes from Matthew. What?!  It so happens that we have a Book of Mormon in the back of our bike. We flipped open the Book of Mormon to 3 Nephi 12 and showed him Christ teaching the Beatitudes to those on the American continent. And then he agreed to come to church. And then he gave us a GIANT watermelon!! So even exercise time is a great time to contact.

I've been thinking lately about the agency involved in belief. We must choose whether or not we are going to believe. In Alma 19:31-32 we see Lamoni, who has just had an incredible experience and converted to Christ. He teaches his people, "and as many as heard his words believed, and were converted unto the Lord. But there were many among them who would not hear his words; therefore they went their way." God will never take away our agency. But if we choose to listen, we will hear and believe. But we must choose ourselves.

I love you! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Rachel Caroline Edwards